Ventus Urens
by Hitori no kage
Summary: It was supposed to be a normal Chunin exams for Team 7, just like any other previous one. But then, a pandemic rips across the five Elementals like no other, one not even Orochimaru could've predicted. Now with more than a third of the world population wiped out, their story will never be the same again. R&R!
1. 1: Chunin Exams

**Hello! Welcome to my third new story! I know I know, shouldn't I concentrate on writing the chapters for TBF and WFSM? I am so don't worry! This idea just suddenly came into my head and demanded I write it so enjoy!**

 **Also, disclaimer: I don't own any canon!Naruto characters, but for the plotlines and possible OCs.**

Synopsis: It was supposed to be a normal Chunin exams for Team 7, just like any other previous one. But then a pandemic rips across the five Elementals like no other, one not even Orochimaru could've predicted. Now with more than a third of the world population wiped out, their story will never be the same again.

Chapter 1: Chunin Exams

Sakura had been both excited and apprehensive about participating in the exams. When Kakashi-sensei had handed her and her team the forms, she had been dubious to his reasons for pushing them into the lion's den and excited that she would finally be a Chunin with Sasuke-kun and prove that she was more worthy of him than that stupid Ino-pig.

But now as she surveyed the damage Konoha was suffering from- no the Five Elemental nations were suffering from- she knew she could no longer be as naive as before. She had to be strong, for her teammates, for her friends, for her dead parents, for her still ailing older brother.

She felt Naruto squeeze her hand in comfort, both for her and for himself.

"You ready to head out? We- we're on the next yard shift…"

"Come on, Naruto-kun. We're meeting Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-sensei there."

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1

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 _1.5 months ago…_

Sakura continued to cast doubtful glances past the broad shoulders of her older brother and towards the entrance of their house. Her parents had come down with a very nasty cough the night before but her older brother had ushered her out of the house so she wouldn't be late to hand in her registration forms for the Chunin exam.

"It's probably just a really bad cold, Sakura-chan. I'll take them to the doctors later", he said as he steered her back to looking forward, "but _you_ need to register for the exams or else you'll not be able to participate."

The pinkette grumbled in frustration. "That's what our next door neighbor said earlier this week, Hinoki* nii-san, and it's gotten worse from the way oba-san's been coughing horribly at night. I hear her through the bedroom wall and I can barely sleep from the noise!"

Hinoki furrowed his brows but continued to push her down the road. "I'll go check up on oba-san as well. Most likely, some new type of flu or cold bug was brought in with the amount of foreigners entering the village for this event. It should pass sooner or later. But you have an exam to concentrate on."

She ended up barely managing to register with two minutes to spare and flinched at the glare she received from Sasuke. She'd forgotten for a split second how much this was affecting him.

"Sorry, Sasuke-kun, I-"

The Uchiha all but growled in annoyance and cut her off. "Just shut up and let's get going already."

"Hey!", Naruto got in Sasuke's face with an angered look. "You don't have to be mean about it! Sakura-chan has never been late and the one time she is slightly later than usual, you get angry at her?! She must have had a good reason!"

Sakura stiffened and turned away from Naruto, who wilted at her dismissal of him. Part of Sakura felt bad and a part of her wanted to snub him. Sakura had always been confused as to why, despite her having never treated the blond nicely, Naruto still continued to try befriending her. She knew, of course, that it was largely due to his crush on her; it was something she wanted to discourage him from. Unfortunately, like most girls her age, the only way she knew how to fend off a boy's affections was to push them away aggressively, sometimes violently.

 _I wish he would just stop trailing after me like some puppy wagging his tail for affections._ Sakura thought as they headed up the flight of stairs to their designated room, 302. _Though I should probably stop being so mean to him. After all, we need to stick together to pass this exam._

Sakura immediately figured out the genjutsu on the door of the second floor and got annoyed since she was sure she counted the flights of stairs correctly. Either people didn't know their arithmetics these days or someone was convincing everyone else that what they believed to be right was wrong.

"Can you please stop bullying people and get out of our way? This is clearly the second floor and there's a genjutsu on this door. You're blocking the staircase over on your right." Sasuke gave Sakura a surprised look and she immediately felt insecure, reverting right back into being the timid girl she wanted him to see. "R-right, Sasuke-kun?"

"Hn." He stiffened for a second before turning to glare at two older boys standing in front of them. Naruto went over and helped a green clad boy stand up from his spot on the floor and that was how Team seven found itself a new rival in one Hyuuga Neji, and Sakura yet another unwanted romantic attention in Rock Lee.

The first exam was quite easy for Sakura, though she panicked when she thought of Naruto and his test taking incompetency, and later when she thought he was raising his hand to forfeit.

"There's no way in hell I'll ever give up!" He shouted with the exuberance he always exuded after slamming his raised hand dramatically down onto the table. Sakura personally thought that had to hurt his hand.

"If I have to be a Genin forever, I don't care either! I'll still find a way Hokage, just you watch, dattebayo!"

Morino Ibiki, the head of the Torture and Interrogation Bureau also known as T&I, and the proctor for this exam, looked mildly surprised and amused. He turned his sinister smirk towards the blond and the pinkette swore the whiskered boy swallowed loudly. Unexpectedly, he remained firm.

"Is that your final decision?"

"Of course it is!"

"I wasn't just asking you, runt." He surveyed the rest of the room, "the question applies to all of you; is this your final decision? Anyone else who wants to back out?"

When no one spoke up, he smirked and leaned back against the teacher's desk with arms crossed at his chest. "Well then, I congratulate all of you for passing this first exam."

"What?! That's it?!"

"What about our actual test paper?! Was that for nothing?!"

"Why have us do the test then?!"

"What's the meaning of all this then?!"

"Just shut up and sit down! There is, of course, a reason for the first part of the test…."

Sakura's attention, however, was suddenly drawn to the rows of Chunin proctors, four seats to her left, one of whom started coughing roughly and quickly left. The man had been wheezing and she noticed he was much paler than the rest of the group of observers. Did he catch that flu bug as well?

"Alright, you maggots don't you celebrate yet!" Something crashed through the window at the front of the room and everyone instinctively grabbed weapon fro their holsters. When Morino only reacted with eye rolling and an exasperated muttering, the Genin in the room slowly backed down, though wariness was still present. Sakura sighed. She must have missed Morino's explanation.

It was a woman who had barged in so violently, purple hair gone slightly wild from her dramatic entrance and there were small flecks of glass shards in it too. She had a Jounin vest on and a wicked grin decorating her face, making her look feral for a human being. Behind her was a banner that read, 'Welcome to the Second Exam!'. People groaned and Sakura couldn't help the mutual feeling as well. Did they not get breaks between the different portions of the test?

"Or you can celebrate now while you can before I wipe out half of you during my part of the test!", she cackled wickedly and if her grin could get any wider, it would. "Ibiki! Why the heck are there so many extra teams that passed?! You've gotten way too soft! Hmph! But no worries… Not many survive my testing after all.

"Okay! The name's Mitarashi Anko and I'll be your proctor for the second part of the Chunin exams!" She jabbed a finger towards herself, "now if all you little runts can get your asses out of your seats and follow me!"

Sakura quickly made her way to her other teammates and followed the violent looking Anko out the door.

"What do you think this part is going to consist of?" Naruto stage whispered and Sasuke gave him an annoyed glance. "I mean, she did say she plans on getting rid of at least of us by the end of it."

For once Sakura didn't yell at him to shut up as she thought about it. Naruto did, however reluctantly she admitted it, bring up a valid question. Removing half the competition in a single part of an exam was a pretty huge deal and it resulted in a higher chance for them to fail.

 _Arghhhh! Stop thinking so pessimistically, Sakura! You have Sasuke-kun here after all!_

 _ **There's no way a genius like him can fail!**_ Inner Sakura shouted in agreement. _**We will make sure no one, especially Naruto for that matter, can get in the way of Sasuke's goal! Cha!**_

That resolve faltered a little along with a stutter of her heart when the group of Chunin-hopefuls gathered before a massive, fenced area; a large sign painted in blood red labeled it 'Training Ground 44'.

Anko swept a hand behind her with an aura of grandeur. "Let me introduce you to the _lovely_ training ground number forty-four or otherwise known as the Forest of Death."

Murmurs broke out at the name but Anko continued her speech with a pleased look about her.

"The rules are rather simple; there are two scrolls in my hands, a Heaven scroll and an Earth scroll. Each team will get one of the two from within the tent over there by the large tree. The goal is for each team to have two different scrolls by the time they reach the tower at the center of the forest with their complete team before three days are up. Any team with less than the three original members by the time they make it the tower is disqualified. Any who open either scrolls before they make it to the tower is disqualified. Any who don't make it to the tower within the three day period will fail.

"You will also be signing two forms, one for your willingness to participate in this exam without outside coercion and another that states that you agree Konohagakure no Sato is not responsible for your possible death that may occur during this time.

"There will also be teams of proctors at the tower as well as within the forest to make sure nothing untoward happens, such as but not limited to escaping the forest, bringing in outside help, et cetera. Any questions?"

A boy Sakura recognized as a member of a team from Iwa and who sat behind her during the written exam, raised a hand. "What happens if someone opens one of the scrolls before they make it to the tower?" He gulped when he saw the glower Anko bestowed upon him and quickly added, "by accident?"

"It doesn't matter whether it is intentional or by accident, brat", she sneered, "this is a test of multiple layers. It is testing your self-discipline and professionalism, your ability to gain information on your targets, fighting abilities and tactics. If you're stupid enough to 'by accidentally' open a damn scroll, you might as well quite being a shinobi right here on the spot before you embarrass yourself and the nation you represent when on the job. You're not suited to be one."

She glared at the other test-takers. "Any more stupid questions? No? Good now get to signing the papers."

She passed out sheets of stapled documents and the Genin began to bite their thumbs to press onto the paper.

"Hah! As if something like this will actually scare me!" Naruto harrumphed as he quickly signed his contracts. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Can you just shut up for a second before you get us all in trouble?"

"Hahaha! You tell him, Sakura!" A voice came from behind her and she turned to see Kiba and his team walked up, Rock Lee's team close behind. "He's way too loud for his own good!"

"Kiba-kun…." Hinata nervously pleaded, glancing at a ruffled Naruto and her smug teammate.

"You're not any better either, Inuzuka." The girl in Rock Lee's team, Tenten warned quietly as she glanced around her cautiously. "Why don't you listen to this senpai's advice and just be aware of your own actions before telling others off. This isn't a game."

"Tenten, you're wasting your breath on people who don't look like they'll listen to you. You'll just get struck by lightning for your good-will when it comes to ignorant people like him. Lee, hurry up and do what you intended. We need to head for our gate soon."

Sakura shrunk away a little but stood firm when the green clad boy walked up to her, expecting another spiel about her youthful flower blooming or some such. She was surprised when he had a serious look on his face.

"Sakura-san, as you may know, this part of the exam is not going to be easy. I cannot do much to help you but there is two things I can promise. My team will not, under any circumstances, try to take a scroll from you. Personally, I vow that should you be in any grave danger, I will do my utmost to protect you! So please be safe and I expect to see you and your team at the tower by the end of this exam."

Sakura, as well as the rest of her team, gaped at Lee's declaration before she nodded slowly in acknowledgement. Maybe the boy wasn't so bad after all.

"I don't expect any less of myself or my team either, Lee-san…" She hesitated before she added, "I expect nothing less from you than to see you at the tower and pass as well. I wish good luck to you and your team."

Lee's eyes sparkled, "ahh, I get to see your beautiful smile and youth before the upcoming trial! How inspiring! If I don't finish this exam before the fifth day, then I will punish myself by doing two hundred laps around the village on my hands! Yosh!"

"Lee…." Tenten groaned and Sakura regretted being nice to him for once.

"Alright, maggots! Hurry up and finish handing in your paper for your scroll and get into position! I don't have all kami damned day!"

Team seven quickly got to the tent, handed in their forms and received a Heaven scroll. They wordlessly handed the scroll to Sakura; Naruto was too obvious and Sasuke was their offense and can't afford to be forced into defense in order to protect the scroll.

Soon they were positioned at gate number thirteen.

"Alright, our goal is to make it as far in as possible and observe other teams. We'll set up a trap and try to snatch an Earth scroll as quickly as possible with the least amount of confrontation. The majority of the time will probably be allotted to making sure we keep the scrolls safe and make it to the tower. Understood?" Sasuke, it seemed, was quick on taking up the leadership within the team. Since no one else had a better plan, they nodded their heads, apprehension and excitement welling up.

A bell rang and a shout declared the beginning of the second part of the Chunin exam.

"Begin!"

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1

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 _Present…_

The deep bellied tolling of a bell rang in the distance as Sakura and Naruto met up with Kakashi and Sasuke. All four of them were pale from nights without sleep and exhaustive digging they had to do. Each wore long sleeves and pants with masks covering their face. On their feet were the rarely used winter shoes used for missions in the far north where temperatures went far below zero. They were in the middle of summer.

"We've been assigned to the Eastern district to collect the bodies. From the number of ringing, another seven have died just now in our area. We'll have to collect those too. Be sure to take a soldier pill before we head out."

"Hai, Sensei."

The graves had initially been made by those who knew earth jutsu, but because of the amount of graves they had to dig, they soon became exhausted and reverted to manually digging and being assigned rotations. As there were too many dying at an alarming rate, they had to resort to making mass burial sites outside the gates of Konoha.

"H-how's your older brother doing?" Sasuke muttered quietly and Sakura trembled with all the worry and regret she had suppressed for the last month. But she tamped down on it and replied with an equally soft voice. Now wasn't the time to get all emotional and weak- they had a job to do and she should be thankful that her brother was still alive for another day. "He's still very sick but it seems the swelling and coughing is receding… I-I've been circulating a bit of my chakra in him to keep his blood flow going and it seems to be working."

Kakashi looked surprised at her. "How did you think of trying that?"

"I- I read some medical books because I was desperate in helping my… my parents get through the sickness. Their fingers and toes were becoming black and I read that when blood doesn't flow to certain areas, the cells begin to die and turn black from decay. That's when I thought maybe helping maintain their blood flow will work or something." Sakura couldn't help the sniffling noise she made when mentioning her parents. "But… I was too late in saving my parents. There's no way I'm letting Hinoki nii-san go that easily!"

Kakashi nodded in understanding as he patted her shoulder. "You've done well already. If the method helps, maybe you should notify the hospital as well so they can try it out on other patients. They need all the help they can get."

She quickly nodded and they set about popping a soldier pill into their mouths dry and going from house to house to collect bodies.

Sakura knocked quietly on a beautifully varnished door, the house quaint and warm. When no one answered after numerous louder knocks, she grabbed the handle and forced the door open with her chakra with her heart plummeting down to her stomach. The lights were off and the stench of rotting food wafted towards her. She immediately sent out a small tendril of chakra to probe around the house for signs of life as she headed in. She found none.

After all, the family of six were dead in their bedrooms. She gave small burst of chakra and Kakashi soon appeared next to her.

"I see. Let's bring them all into the living room downstairs for easier use of the containment scroll."

They quickly and with as much gentleness as possible, collected the bodies and headed outside where Naruto and Sasuke were holding scrolls as well. Sakura took out a vial of red paint and painted the door with a large 'X' on it, tainting the light brown wood with the sign of death.

Naruto clutched his scroll as he walked down the steps of the house he had gone into and joined the rest of his team with his head down. Both Sasuke and Sakura placed a hand on either side of his shoulders and squeezed gently.

"Let's go."

Not one person believed themselves to ever get used to the mourning they heard as they left the family members of the dead behind them.

The cries of agony and sorrow will probably be forever imprinted in their memories, haunting them in their sleep.

 **A/N:**

 ***Hinoki- Cypress tree**

 **Hey! I think you all must thinking why I'm writing such a morbid scene in the first chapter of a new story- why I'm even writing such a morbid story as a matter of fact. Diseases deriving from bacteria and viruses have always fascinated me and now that we're living in a world where we are becoming increasingly aware of the types epidemics and pandemics that occur around us, I suddenly had this thought; what if this happened in canon!Naruto? What would have happened then and how drastically would the changes be?**

 **As to what this disease is, a I don't think it'll be that hard to guess after the next chapter or two, or even now. Do let me know what you think of this story so far and if you figured out what this disease is, write it in as well! Of course, I'll create some twists to it as well. Please read and review! I'll love you all the more for it!**

 **Sincerely,**

 **Hitori no kage**


	2. 2: The Beginnings of a Nightmare 1

**A/N: Welcome again!**

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Synopsis: It was supposed to be a normal Chunin exams for Team 7, just like any other previous one. But then a pandemic rips across the five Elementals like no other, one not even Orochimaru could've predicted. Now with more than a third of the world population wiped out, their story will never be the same again.

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Chapter 2: The Beginnings of a Nightmare 1

"Continuously digging graves is not going to work for long. Instead of unsealing the containment scrolls and burying the dead, I suggest we burn them while they're still sealed to prevent contamination of the air and in the earth. This may mean we have to use more scrolls and conscript fuinjutsu users to create more, but it will allow us to expend less energy in the long run and give us more time to focus on other parts of our recovery and controlling this outbreak." The hospital director stood gravely before the circle of seated clan heads and the elders. One of the elders, Homura, was missing, however, but no one brought it up. They didn't need to, since they guessed what must have happened.

"I believe this bacteria has mutated", he continued, handing out papers listing the medical research team's findings. "It originally infected the civilian population heavily, but now it is starting to affect the young and retired shinobis. My belief, based on the my observations, is that civilians are being felled so quickly because of their chakra is largely dormant and unable to boost their bodies' natural ability to fight off foreign bacteria or virus. Younger children have underdeveloped chakra coils while retired elderly shinobi have weakened coils that aren't circulating as often as active shinobi. If we fatigue our shinobi by having them continuously work without much rest and wasting their chakra digging graves, it will make them more susceptible to infection and allow this disease to mutate yet again, making it stronger. Please consider my suggestion."

"It makes sense and I vote in concurrence to this suggestion." Akimichi Chouza nodded his head, wariness and fatigue clear on his usually vibrant face. Yamanaka Inoichi also nodded his head.

"I concur."

"I too, agree this is the most logical step." Nara Shikaku spoke up, arms crossed at his chest and a deep frown marring his face. " We already have enough to deal with. We don't need anymore possibilities of contamination and spreading this disease if we can help it."

Danzo looked around the table eyeing each member at the meeting. "Any who objects to this proposal?"

Hyuuga Hiashi grimaced but kept silent. Even he knew that preserving life at this point was more important than preserving the tradition and pride of a proper burial.

"No? Then the decision to burn all body containment sealing scrolls without unsealing has passed.

"Now, to the matter of finding a new Hokage. As we all know that our Sandaime passed away due to the disease causing complications to his injuries, we need to fill in the gaps in our government before Konoha weakens any further. Is there anyone you would like to suggest?"

Koharu raised her hand. "I would like to put Danzo-sama's name up for consideration."

Murmurs spread throughout the room.

"I would like to nominate Jiraiya-sama." Inuzuka Tsume spoke up quickly.

"I nominate Hatake Kakashi."

"I would like to nominate Senju Tsunade-sama. She is after all, a world renowned medic. If we can convince her to come back not only to take up the mantle of Hokage, but lead us in combatting this pestilence, then we can recover faster than the other nations. Her apprentice Shizune-san, can also take over leading the hospital." Shikaku turned towards the current hospital director with an apologetic nod. "I mean no offense towards you, Sozo-san."

"None taken, Nara-sama." The man held up a hand and shook his head, "I know my limits and when I'm way in over my head."

Danzo cleared his throat, causing everyone to tense up for an instant before settling back down when it became clear that their head advisor was not… sick. "We need to decide based on these four names who will be our next Hokage. After we determine whether they are willing to take the mantle, we will vote to make our final decision. Any objections?"

When no one spoke up, he nodded. "As one of the four to be nominated, I have no issues in becoming Hokage should I be called to do so. Now, Boar."

An Anbu immediately appeared from nowhere and bowed, one knee touching the floor.

"Boar, I want you and your team to track down Sannin Jiraiya and send a missive for his immediate return. Have another team do the same for Tsunade-hime. They are to arrive back within the month. Is that clear?"

"Hai, Danzo-sama." Anbu Boar was gone as fast as he came.

A knock on the door interrupted their meeting and the door was opened quickly to reveal an out-of-breath Chunin, almost as pale as bone china.

"Minna-sama*, council of elders and Danzo-sama! I apologize for intruding but this is a message-"

"Just get to the message." Danzo interrupted.

"Hai. A hawk from the capital just came in. More than half of the royal family has perished… and the Daimyo… he's succumbed as well, Danzo-sama." The Chunin swallowed trying to wet his parched throat. "One of the remaining royal family members sent a telegram asking for assistance to prevent possible coups or attacks from our Northern neighbor until they have found someone to transfer the Daimyo title to and stabilized central government."

Danzo closed his eyes in frustration. This… disease was becoming more of a problem than he thought. There were muttered curses heard in the room as they all realized the implications. If word got out that Hi no Kuni has neither a Daimyo nor a Kage, then other nations who were not as devastated as they were would pounce on this chance to overrun their country. Even small miniscule nations like Kusa would have no problems successfully invading and absorbing them if Kusagakure turned out to be holding out better than them.

Shikaku immediately drafted a telegram and threw it to the Chunin to catch. "Send this to the capital immediately. They are to make sure the news of Daimyo-sama and his family members' deaths do not get out of Fire country. There'll be dire consequences if this information is leaked. I have written that two teams, at most, will be sent to the capital to reassure them and give them a sense of safety. From our information network, none of the Five Elemental nations were spared from this disease, so we won't have to worry about them causing problems for us at the moment. Now go."

"Hai, Nara- sama!"

"This also means we need to send out teams with a member with some medical knowledge to go along and survey the damage outside of our village. They can also double in finding Tsunade-sama." Shikaku said once the messenger was gone. "Our priority is to make sure there is no disorder and that missing-nins and thieves do not take this chance to plunder and cause chaos as well. Reinstating a new Hokage has become all the more important to us now…"

No one argued that statement.

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2

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Sakura, Ino, Shino and Hinata worked tirelessly in the hospital, cleaning wounds, taking dirtied sheets to the labs to dump in large vats of boiling water for disinfection, taking away the dead to be cremated and assisting medics and nurses in bringing things to and from the storage room.

There were often times when they had to take turns leaving the room of the infected to take a breather when the horrors of the disease manifesting on a patient became too great for them to deal with; painful swelling of lymph nodes that went from looking angry red to decaying black, the cries of agony as gangrene set in on the extremities and wheezing coughs that eventually spiralled downhill into choking on blood from burst capillaries in the lungs. Sakura herself tried her best to last as long as possible. Each time she helped to take care of patients she would imagine her brother there, suffering- and she couldn't bare to think that she would look away from him in disgust as she was tempted to do now.

She had spoken to the head nurses and the hospital director, Sozo Kaede, about her attempt at using chakra on her brother and the results. It had been able to prevent gangrene from settling on the hands and feets, therefore keeping him alive long enough for antibodies to develop against the bacteria.

However, they soon found out that this method only worked on those who were brought in during the early stages of the sickness; it didn't prevent those who already long developed inflamed and decaying lymph nodes from dying of septic shock or patients who already had bleeding in the lungs and a raging fever. Those either fell into a coma not long after and eventually died or drowned in their own blood.

There was also the matter of not enough medics to go around and perform this type of technique. And so the only thing they could do was to quarantine the infected, try to get to those who could still be saved and make sure all staff who took care of them were careful to prevent contaminating themselves.

Sasuke and Naruto were assigned similar jobs alongside Tenten, Chouji and Neji at another location when the hospital became too packed for anymore to be brought in. Rock Lee was put to guarding those uninfected by the disease since his maldeveloped chakra coils wouldn't be able to give him some sort of protection. Their Jounin sensei were distributed into different bureaus, such as the Intelligence and the Medical Research departments. Kakashi on the other hand, was called back into Anbu while Sarutobi Asuma was sent along as part of the teams to go to the capital due to his past stint as a Guardian.

It was during one of their breaks when a messenger Genin came looking for them at the main hospital. He handed Sakura a scroll. "The council has summoned you to accept a mission. You are to report to the conference room at the Hokage Tower immediately."

He was gone before she had time to reply back or even say a word of thanks.

Ino huffed in annoyance that didn't quite show in her eyes. They were all too tired to complain about trivialities by now like proper greetings. That will have to wait until this whole entire incident ended. "Well, you better get going, forehead girl. Just don't knock into things because your forehead is weighing you down so much you can't keep your head lifted."

"Psh, like I would be so careless as to do that, Piggy." Sakura countered heatedly, though she couldn't help the smile that was growing on her face. It was in moments like these when they bantered, that she felt more alive than she ever remembered in the last two months. "I'm not the one who has a habit of charging into things, literally, without thinking unlike you."

Ino faked an indignant huff that came out more like a snort and Hinata giggled. Shino, whom no one could ever tell what he was feeling by facial expression, seemed to relax his stiff shoulders marginally.

"Well, I'll get going then."

Ino grabbed her arm just as she turned around. Sakura looked back at her.

"J-just be careful on whatever mission you're going on alright? The world's a huge sloppy mess out there and I'd hate to be a bringer of bad news to Hinoki-san." She forced herself to grin, "I do want to stay on good enough terms with him that he will ask me on a date if I fail to make Sasuke-kun mine. Not that I'll fail anyway."

"You don't have to worry your pretty little head, Ino-pig." Sakura laughed softly when Ino tried swatting her head. "I'll do fine and if you ever date my Hinoki nii-san, you better not treat him like your second choice on the menu!"

With that she quickly left for the tower, jogging up the steps and into the conference room.

"Danzo-sama, Nara-sama. I received the mission scroll and your summons." Sakura quickly bowed.

Danzo who only ever appeared to the public during funerals and extremely important ceremonies, was hardly the kind of person shinobi would find themselves wanting to meet and speak to. For reasons unknown but for rumours that he may have injured himself during the Second Shinobi War, he had his right eye bandaged, as well as the whole of his right arm which was placed in a sling. Despite his frail look, he still held about him an intimidating aura. No one doubted for a second that he was powerful still.

"You are to meet a team at the gate in half an hour. Your mission is to scout and record the scale of damage other parts of our country are suffering from and bring back any news or techniques others are using that may benefit in our recovery." Danzo eyed her from head to toe. "Since you have been working at the hospital for a while now, I'm sure you weren't stupid enough to not observe and remember how the medics and nurses did their procedures. We don't have enough medics circulating around in our village as it is, much less send them out alongside teams.

"Your second priority is to keep a close eye out on sightings of Tsunade-hime. If you do find her, you are to immediately send a notification back to us. The rest of the details are in your scroll. This is a B-rank mission and as is custom for all missions above C-rank, burn the scroll after you read it. Any questions?"

Sakura shook her head and she was dismissed from their presence. She quickly went back home, grabbed a few of her belongings and mission supplies before stopping by her brother's hospital room for a quick visit.

"Hinoki nii-san, I'm heading out for a mission but I'll be back really quickly, okay? Ino-chan and Hinata-chan promised me they will look after you while you recover."

Hinoki looked at her worriedly and she smiled, holding onto his hand and pulsed a controlled amount of chakra into his system one more time before she left.

"Really, I'll be back in no time. Focus on recovering and when I come back, I'll bring back a few new and exotic recipes for us to try out, okay? Wait for me."

She slipped out of the room without looking back even as her brother croaked out her name. She didn't think she would leave if she stopped to reassure her brother again. She quickly pushed chakra to her feet and jumped from roof to roof to quickly arrive at the front gates. She was met with an unusually somber Neji and the face of a Chunin she didn't know. They left quietly, heading for their first stop due south- Shichigami village.

.

2

.

 _First day in the Forest of Death…_

"Aw man, Sakura-chan, Sasuke-teme, I really really need to take a piss somewhere, like right now!"

They had traveled at top speed ever since they entered the fenced-in forest and headed straight for the center. Sasuke initially wanted to jump into the trees for better momentum and coverage but after seeing the amount of natural death traps waiting to happen and the little amount of space to work with, they settled for staying on the ground floor.

It was about half hour into the exam when Naruto suddenly made that declaration, grounding all three of them into a halt.

Sasuke threw him an annoyed glance. "Really? You couldn't have done that when we still had time outside of the gates?"

Naruto grumbled. "Well, when you gotta go, you gotta go, right? Not like I can control when my bladders decides to say it's full."

Sakura was just surprised he even knew what a bladder was and sighed. "I didn't need to know the details about your bladder having it's own mind. Just quickly go please."

She nearly shrieked in anger when she saw that Naruto went straight to unzipping his pants.

"Naruto! At least let people know if you plan on going to the bathroom in front of them!"

"Oh uh sorry, Sakura-chan! I'll go behind the tree over there." He headed behind the nearest tree and Sakura couldn't help but pinch the bridge of her nose.

Boys.

It took only about a minute or two but when he came back from behind the tree, both Sasuke and Sakura immediately knew, it was not the same Naruto. And the fact that subduing the blond didn't even produce a single sound…

"Man, I feel so much better after that! Phew! You ready to go, guys?" He threw his hands behind his head in a gesture of laid-back nonchalance as he exclaimed loudly. That was mistake number one.

Sasuke rushed him in a blink of an eye, kunai in hand as he lashed out at the henge-transformed person. 'Naruto' gave a shout of surprise as he evaded the blade smoothly. Mistake number two.

"Hey! Sasuke-teme! What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"You've got most of his speech pattern down but your mannerisms are all wrong." Sakura palmed a kunai, "Naruto would never have casually walked back like that without some of the angst I get annoyed over. He would have instead ran back out nervously and possibly forget to properly zip his pants up." She heard an indignant muffle from behind the tree.

That was a good sign; it meant he was still conscious and they wouldn't have to carry him around while continuing their travel plans.

"Second of all, you evaded my attack way too quickly and too smoothly", Sasuke sneered. "Finally, you were stupid enough to mirror copy his image. He's a righty, you doofus and you made yourself a lefty by putting your weapons holster on the wrong side. If you can't even get a henge down correctly, just quit and go home. Fools like you aren't needed here… unless you have the scroll we need."

"Hmph! How unlucky of me to have picked him to henge! Well then, let's see who has the scroll!"

He went straight for Sakura, who seemed like an easy target. A part of her felt angered that everyone wanted to underestimate her and another part felt vindictive. If they wanted to look down on her? Fine, then she'll use it to her advantage!

"Don't you dare blame your stupidity and lack of observation skills on bad luck, shannaro!"

She quickly ducked and faked a leg sweep. She switched legs last minute and kicked upward when the opponent was close enough. She managed to nick his side before he dodged and jumped back right into Sasuke's attack.

"Go and untie the damn dobe! I'll hold this guy off!"

"Got it!"

The fight was over quickly, and by the time she helped haul Naruto off his backside, the attacker had been subdued and tied.

Sakura was still wary, however, as her analytical part of the brain whispered it was suspicious that he was able to tie up Naruto with nary a sound but get defeated so quickly. There was also the fact that he was alone. Where were his teammates?

She could only come up with two conclusions: this guy was the team's scout who had been sent to spy but not engage with any teams but he foolishly did so, or someone else was playing the both of them. The first option made sense but still left questions unanswered and the second option did not sit well with Sakura AT. All.

Sasuke hurriedly checked their assailants pockets for scrolls without much success. He growled in annoyance and whacked the tied genin across the head with his foot, effectively knocking the boy out.

"Let's tie him to the tree over there and cover it with shrubs. Then we move out." Sasuke turned and dragged the unconscious boy over to the side, threw the length of rope onto the lowest branch of a tree and started tugging. Sakura ran over to help but Naruto sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

"Uh, guys? I didn't get to pee yet-"

"Oh just stand right over here and do your business, sheesh!" Sakura cried out in exasperation. It took all of her not to throw her hands into the air and scream 'kami save us all!' before burying the blond neck deep in dirt.

"Sasuke-kun, I'll handle pulling him up and securing the rope. Would you mind watching the idiot so he doesn't get ambushed, please?"

She turned around to finish securing the Kiri-nin without realizing her sudden boldness when addressing Sasuke, nor did she see the black-haired boy's eyes widen at her abrupt assertiveness. But seeing that her request was reasonable and not… clingy, he did as told.

They quickly moved on, jumping into the trees when they began to see less cobwebs and the mess of vines that had ensnared the trees behind them. Sasuke gestured for the other two to move in closer.

"We need to figure out a way to ensure no one gets substituted out should we ever end up separating." Sasuke muttered softly so that only they could hear. "We can't always afford to rely on the enemy to slip up when impersonating any one of us."

"You're right, Sasuke-kun. We definitely need something like a code only we know."

Naruto looked nervous, almost squeamish like he was looking down at something he didn't want to eat. "Just something not too long, alright? Uh, I can't remember long stuff that easily."

Sasuke hummed, whether to acknowledge the request or in thinking, neither Naruto nor Sakura were sure.

"I will tell you the question and answer only once, is that clear?

"The question is: what is the secret passage to the heart of the Uchiha? The answer: it is within the Naka on the seventh month of the thirteenth day of the thirteenth hour, when the shadows of the sacred tree beside the waters casts four degrees due northeast. There you will find the secret passage to the heart of the Uchiha." Sasuke eyed the other two. "Have you both remembered it?"

Sakura nodded, "affirmative."

"Naruto?"

"Uh- um, yes! Uh, yes, I did!"

The blond's two teammates barely looked like they believed him but they didn't question it and moved on.

It was only by the sheer adrenaline slowly pumping in her veins and her earlier suspicions that she felt the twitch of fluctuating chakra behind her that didn't belong to the forest, and caught the shimmer of metal weapons heading their way in her peripheral vision.

"Everyone, get down!"

And then the trees exploded.

.

2

.

 _Present…_

"Hyuuga-san, I have… a request." Sakura approached the long-haired Genin as they finished setting up camp for the night. "A plea if you will."

Neji looked towards her with no small amount of wariness and disdain left over from his still remaining belief that the weak will always be weak.

Sakura certainly hadn't forgotten the things he'd said during the preliminaries when he almost killed Hinata or how angered Naruto had been at Hyuuga's words, challenging the boy to a fight whether in the final tournament or after. Of course, it never happened.

The sudden grotesque appearance of the deadly disease that had cut off their Chunin exams followed by the hard blow of Orochimaru's attempted invasion had changed the boy somewhat- changed all of them- but a part of the arrogance he held himself with still remained.

"Whether I will consider your request or not is dependent on the content of it, Haruno-san."

Sakura quickly bowed deeply at her waist. "Please train me in taijutsu!"

"Taijutsu?" Neji echoed, dubious. "I'm hardly the right person to ask of this when my style is derived of my clan's techniques. I'm certainly forbidden to teach you those. Why not ask Gai-sensei?"

"I have considered asking Gai-san, but as he has been sent out to numerous missions at the moment, I doubt he will be able to spare a moment for someone like me. But you're here and you have experience learning from him." He scowled and opened his mouth to ready a scathing remark but Sakura cut him off. "I don't mean that I'm only asking you only because you are his student, but because you have experience as well one other thing I would like to master and that is chakra points or what your clan calls tenketsu.

"Working at the hospital has peaked my interest in the realm of medical ninjutsu. I believe that if I learned more about the human body, especially from your standpoint, it would help." Sakura swallowed hard. "Seeing my brother that way, becoming so helpless, I want to be stronger, to be able to use what little strengths I have to my advantage which would be chakra control."

"I have already said, haven't I?" Neji's opaque eyes narrowed at her. "Those whose fate is weakness will only be able to go so far, no matter how much they try."

"I've wondered about that, Hyuuga-san. If it's as you say it is, then how are you so strong, to be able to figure out the secrets of the main branch's clan taijutsu style without anyone teaching you?"

He immediately stiffened up and grew intimidating.

"Now listen you-"

"I am only pointing this out because Hinata still respects and cares for you and I see it myself- the discrepancies. Your beliefs and what you are doing are contradicting each other. You believe fate determines that people can never change, yet you're breaking through the constraints your elders have placed on you. Your so-called fate dictated you could never learn all the techniques because it's supposed to be impossible with your clan status, yet you did. Fate dictated that Hinata was supposed to become some strong cold-hearted leader I see Hiashi-sama sometimes is and yet she is being slowly crushed by burdens she was never asked to be born with just because of her kind nature. Fate then dictated that Hinata will always be weak because of it, yet every time I see her shed tears for the sick and dying but hold strong and still clean them and even sooth those in agony, I see a strength I greatly admire in her.

"Tell me, Hyuuga-san, does this make sense to you? Think carefully. If your so-called fate claims to have dictated you to never become stronger than a Genin, maybe a Chunin, would you have quietly accepted it? I think not, not when you've fought your way to learn the things you did."

His body remained rigid and Sakura saw that he was holding himself back only because they were on a mission and a Chunin was also present. She was thankful for that.

It took a while before he said anything.

"Is this how you always ask people for favors?"

Sakura let out a shaky smile, because she too, didn't know she had the guts in her to censure someone so harshly, and certainly not to a Hyuuga's face, branch member or not.

"No. Not always." _Not unless I want to make them see some freaking damn sense!_

"I will consider it only on one condition. If you can memorize the locations of all three hundred and sixty-one tenketsu points by the time we finish our mission, and be able to point it out to me, then I will help you. If you cannot, then that only proves my belief is correct. Do you agree to this?"

"Are you making this a bet?"

"If seeing it that way makes you feel better", he replied snidely, "be my guest."

This condition he set on her was definitely hard and near impossible. Hyuugas had it easy because of their Byakugan, in which all three hundred and sixty-one tenketsu points could be seen clearly through their doujutsu. Otherwise, those chakra pathway points would be so small that even chakra enhancement to the eyes wouldn't be able to detect them. Their ability to see them was what made the Hyuuga clan so venerated and important to Konoha.

Sakura believed herself to be able to know the areas where the points were through sheer memorization, but it would taken her an extended period of time to do so; she didn't know how long this mission would last and the scroll only gave her a general time frame of one to two months. The mission, for all she knew, could end early or stretch out longer than that depending on the severity of the situation out there.

But she had to try, both to convince Neji that his worldview was skewed and to see how far her chakra control limits stretched.

"Fine, but I have a condition I would like to add on to yours."

She wasn't surprised by the suspicion she received.

"Trying to back out, Haruno?"

"Of course not", she scoffed lightly though beads of cold sweat was forming at her temple as she thought about how outrageous her next words would be. "We will be traveling along this route for about another four days since we're going from the farthest town assigned to us first then work backwards in the direction of Konoha. My condition is that during this period, while we will be less likely to meet people on the road or be in infected areas, I would like you to intentionally shut down certain sections of my tenketsu points at my request."

His eyes couldn't have gotten wider- for a Hyuuga who was instilled to not show expressions much, that is. She answered his unspoken question.

"It's so that I can personally experience, feel and map out the tenketsu points. I will need it if I don't know how long we will be on the road to complete this mission. I will not boast that I won't have a problem succeeding in fulfilling your request but I won't back down either. Will you accept?"

Neji hesitated for the first time. No one had actually made that kind of unthinkable request of him before, or of anyone he knew, for that matter. Shutting down tenketsu points by way of the Hyuuga Gentle Fist style was not pleasant.

No, it was painful and his own experience during his training in the compound could attest to that.

Was she crazy?!

He gazed intently at the pink-haired girl, willing for any signs of hesitance or false bravado to reveal itself to him. But when he saw none, he sighed in exasperation, an inexplicable feeling settling in his chest. Should he respect her for her courage or be dumbfounded at her foolishness?

"Fine."

"Okay, then I agree to your condition as well, Hyuuga-san." Sakura smiled and held out her left arm. "Please shut down the points in here tonight. I need to gauge how this works first before I ask for any more."

"It will hurt."

"I know. I want to know how much pain I can endure as well."

He nodded.

"Byakugan", he whispered and proceeded to call forth chakra to his eyes and fingertips. Sakura watched in fascination as his kekkai genkai was activated but bit down on her lower lip hard enough to draw blood as he proceeded to shut down her chakra points.

"Gentle Fist Art: Pressure Finger."

Hell, it hurt a lot!

She couldn't help the whimper of pain as she physically felt her chakra be unable to excess her left arm from the shoulder down. There was a throbbing, stinging sensation like thick needles impaling her flesh and through her bones. It was almost excruciating.

"Do you regret asking this of me now?"

Sakura grit her teeth together stubbornly before biting out a "no".

Neji studied her briefly before nodding and left for his bedroll leaving her to stagger to her own as the Chunin accompanying them looked on warily.

"Everything alright there, Haruno-san?"

She nodded quickly to reassure the young man. "I'm alright, Kitahara-san. I only asked Hyuuga-san for a small favor. Nothing more."

"Okay… Well, then let's sleep, I'll take first-"

"I'd like to take the first watch, actually, if I may, Kitahara-san."

"I'll take second watch then." The pale-eyed boy added in.

Kitahara looked resigned. Kids these days were way too enthusiastic.

"If that's what you want." He shrugged and turned over in his bedroll. "Good night then."

"Good night" The two younger ones replied, and soon, Sakura was left to herself as she meditated, training herself to multi-task in feeling for potential dangers and trying to chakra probe the tenketsu points in her left arm.

It was definitely going to be a long night for her.

.

2

.

 _Second Day in the Forest of Death_

Sakura shuddered within the shelter she found for herself and her two unconscious teammates. Rain had soaked her hair, her clothes, run down her face in place of the tears that had long dried. It had washed out any traces of their escape and scent; a bad thing, if her teammates needed medical attention and the proctors surveying the ground couldn't sense them through the moist air. It may also be a good thing in that it made it less likely for Orochimaru to find them again. At least she hoped it would.

The cold wind hit her again and she sneezed, freezing for a split second after as she strained to hear anyone out there who might have heard her. She checked on Naruto and Sasuke, taking the cloths off their foreheads to wring out the warmed water and soak it again with the crisp rain.

Once she was done with her task, she huddled closer to the two to give them warmth and gain some from them as well, especially Sasuke as his body was feverishly hot. Her hands were freezing and she longed to hold the boys' hands for courage but she needed to face forward to guard the root opening they were hiding under.

She still couldn't reconcile with the fact that her team- a team of mere Genin- had fought and managed to survive against Orochimaru of the Densetsu no Sannin.

A Sannin.

 _A_ _Sannin_.

How was that even possible?!

Sakura grabbed her hair harshly giving it a violent tug as she warred within herself.

She had been so useless, barely managing to save an unconscious Naruto from breaking his back and neck on the unforgiving forest floor. He'd so heroically saved them from being swallowed by the Sannin's snake summon only to take a hit by the man himself, who did something funny to his stomach. Then Orochimaru proceeded to whack the living daylights out of Sakura and Sasuke had to intervene. Had to save her because she was weak.

So useless.

And she watched helplessly as the traitorous snake summoner bit Sasuke's neck, branding him with some sort of curse before disappearing with a chilling promise.

" _He will come to me when he is ready to seek power."_

No!

She will never let that happen!

Sakura looked behind her again, her eyes straying to Naruto whose brows were scrunched as if in discomfort. Guilt crawled into her as she thought back on how she had treated him badly for so long.

Her grip on the kunai in her hand went knuckle-white, resolve steeling within her. She will protect her teammates! And she will treat both of them nicer not just because she needed them to pass an exam! She will treat them better and with more respect because they were her family and that's what family does.

With that in mind, she held the kunai to her left forearm and sliced a small area. The pain gave her new alertness but didn't cut deep enough that she would lose too much blood.

She will guard them with her life.

It was a few hours later- one or two, two or three, she couldn't remember- that she first sensed signs of people approaching their hideout. The sun had finally risen and it was their third day into the second part of their exam.

Her muscles immediately tensed as she readied her weapons in case of an attack.

"Are you a teammate of Uchiha Sasuke?" It was less of a question and more of a demand coming out of the approaching figure. "Tell him to come out and fight us."

The second voice was feminine and condescending, "don't pretend you're not there! We can sense your pitiful chakra under that tree root from a mile away! How pathetic."

Three contestants revealed themselves in the clearing, the soft sunlight glancing their metal headbands to reveal their musical note insignia.

Sound nin.

The pinkette eyed them warily. "Sorry to disappoint, but whoever you're looking for is not a part of my team. My own teammates came down with fevers and I am just guarding them until this part of the exam is over so we can forfeit. If it's a scroll you want, take ours and leave."

The tallest, with almost his whole face wrapped up, seemed to be the leader of the group. He chuckled. "Nice try, but baiting me with a stupid scroll for this stupid exam will not work on us. And I know who you are, Haruno Sakura, and I know who your teammates are as well."

He pulled out a kunai and aimed it in her direction. "Now hand him over."

"Who over?" Sakura gathered as much bravado as she could, giving her appearance that of nonchalance. "Sorry, your voice was so weak I couldn't hear who you're asking for."

The girl of the team, with long black hair tied back in a look that reminded her of Hyuuga Neji, growled in agitation as she stepped towards the pinkette threateningly.

"Don't you get smart with us!"

"Kin!"

Sakura quickly swiped at the hidden wires behind her unleashing the traps she set on any intruder who might come her way.

A log came swinging down on Kin, and the Sound girl stood frozen for a second before she smirked and stretched out her hands as if to stop the log with them. Air pressure around the log seemed to warp and it imploded.

"Ha! As if that kind of puny trap would work-"

Sakura smirked, "boom."

She'd attached one of the strongest explosive tags she had on her on the bottom of the gigantic log.

Strong gusts of wind and fire blew into the open area and Sakura did her best to shield her teammates behind her with her own body. Maybe she overdid it a bit.

But as they say 'not fearing the one million, only fearing the one in a million'.

She heard muffled curses and chakra induced winds clear the air. Smaller fires remained as wooden debris fell to the ground, hissing when the receding rain tried to extinguish them. Kin lay crumpled on the ground, burns and shrapnel littering her body. A particularly large one was embedded in her chest.

 _Her first indirect kill._

Sakura ignored that thought and pushed it to the back of her mind, focusing instead on the livid figures of the two males.

"I was going to spare you if you'd just handed over the Uchiha but now I'm going to get rid of your pathetic existence!"

"Why spare her in the first place, Dosu. Let's just kill them all. Master didn't say anything about letting them go alive." The boy with his hair spike up and a shirt that had three kanjis for death sewn on it, walked over to his fallen teammate and gave her a harsh kick in disdain. "How useless of her to die just like that. Hn."

"Zaku… as harsh as ever." Dosu sighed. Zaku shrugged carelessly, a feral grin growing on his lips.

"Well then, come out come out girly! Time for some screaming!"

Sakura immediately threw a volley of shuriken at the fast approaching boy but it was for naught when he blasted pressurized air from his palms, turning the weapons back against her. She immediately grabbed the shrubbery beside her, using all the strength she didn't know she had in her and pulled it out by the roots, not caring if her hands were scraped. She used it to knock the returning shuriken away from her crouched position and immediately threw kunai back at him as she moved out into the open area.

 _I need to keep the line of fire away from Sasuke-kun and Naruto!_

"More kunai and shuriken won't save your sorry ass!" Zaku laughed, again blasting the weapons away harmlessly.

 _I know that! You and your trash talking!_

 _ **Come on!**_ Inner Sakura cheered, _**show'em what you've got! Cha!**_

 _Problem is I don't have a lot to show for!_

She moved to the next set of traps she laid and snapped the wires, eliciting a series of explosions that rocked the forest floor, birds flying into the air in alarm.

 _Not as creative as Naruto but I'll work with it!_

"Genjutsu Arts: Hell-viewing Technique", she whispered urgently and called up everything her five senses remembered of a raging inferno, making sure it was in time with the blasts.

Zaku cried out and stumbled back though it didn't take Dosu more than a minute before he shouted "kai!".

Sakura, however, had closed in him, immediately seeing that he was less susceptible to the illusion. She pounced him the moment he freed himself managing to drive a kunai into his shoulder, pinning him to the ground. She was readying another to strike his other shoulder when she was punched her across the head from behind.

"Arghh!" Sakura was sent flying several feet away, vision blackening from the impact of her back and head cracking against a tree.

Zaku grabbed her by the hair, yanking her halfway up and Sakura screamed, the wetness she felt and knew was blood trickled down the back of her neck.

"I've had enough of your petty attempts to win against us. You're nothing but weak!" He positioned a hand to her left ear. "For the headache you gave me just now, I'm going to make you suffer!"

Sakura didn't wait for him to finish his speech but quietly slipped another kunai into her hand, knocked his hand away from her ear and jammed the weapon into his palm as far as she could go. Zaku screamed in pain and released her, and the girl scrambled backwards only to be slammed face first into the ground by Dosu, muffling her shout of pain.

"You've given us way too much trouble, mouse." Dosu flipped a kunai into his hands. "You need to die _now."_

"You will go no further, you fiends! You will not be hurting the youthful flower!" The bandaged boy jerked back at the sudden booming voice, turning to see a monstrously green clad boy with thick eyebrows and a bowl cut. "I, Rock Lee, will challenge you!"

Dosu sneered, "does Konoha run a circus?"

"More like a freak show!" Zaku spat venomously, ripping the kunai out-of his palm.

"Let Sakura-san go and leave or I will not be held accountable if I severely injure you!"

"And if I don't?", Dosu purposely brought the kunai closer to the half conscious pinkette's throat and next thing the two Sound nins knew, Lee was gone and next to them, slamming a roundhouse kick into Dosu's face.

"I've warned you!"

Zaku quickly engaged the green clad boy, Dosu soon joining in and the fight became a battle of dogging and taijutsu.

Sakura groaned, her head pounding painfully. She was aware enough that she knew even a six year old can tell she had a concussion.

"Sakura, what the hell?!" The injured girl thought she was starting to imagine things when she thought she heard Ino's panicked voice reach her.

"Don't be so loud, Ino! So troublesome... She probably has a concussion and loud noises are not going to help!" And now she was hearing Shikamaru too.

"Ino-chan, Shi-Shikamaru, what should we do?!" Okay hearing one or two voices was one thing. But hearing Chouji too…

Sakura forced her eyes open and saw Team Ten huddling in front of her: Ino looking at her with what seemed like concern, Shikamaru to Ino's right and looking out into the field while Chouji was crouching on the other side of her head looking anxiously between whatever Shikamaru was watching and Ino.

"Help me up, Ino-pig." Sakura croaked. Ino immediately complied.

"Well if you still have this much sass in you, then you're not too far gone, forehead."

"What are you guys doing here?"

"We- we just happened across you guys", Ino sputtered, "and I wanted to see how Sasuke-kun is doing! Where is he by the way?! And where's the stupid dunce?!"

"Naruto's not a dunce!" Sakura snapped vehemently. "He saved us from being eaten by that traitorous snake's summon! So don't go calling him names!"

Ino rocked back on her heels, having never heard Sakura defend the blond boy so passionately.

"Just what happened to you guys… ?"

Shikamaru gave Sakura a sharp glance. "Traitorous snake?"

"Orochimaru."

Ino and Chouji paled like bleach staining dark fabric. "W-wait and moment, you mean Orochimaru as in the _Sannin_ Orochimaru?!"

"Yeah, that's what I've been asking myself too."

A shout of pain from Lee paused any conversation they were having as Sakura propped herself up better just in time to see Lee kneeling on the ground with an ear bleeding.

"Lee-san!" Guilt coursed through Sakura for the second time in a day. She pushed herself to her feet to stagger towards her rescuer.

"Looks like freak shows will only ever be freak shows-" Zaku coughed. He tried to clear his throat and continue speaking but the next set of coughs became more violent and he had to put his uninjured hand to his mouth as he tried to control it.

"Zaku, what the hell is wrong with you-"

Blood suddenly spewed from Zaku mouth and his eyes widened then contorted with pain. He dropped to his knees heaving for air he couldn't get. Suddenly, red discoloration began to form, round circles of them, turning into bruised purple before morphing to black. Sakura was alarmed.

"Lee-san, get back! Don't touch him!"

Lee immediately back pedaled, eyes wide at the abrupt grotesque scene and everyone watched as Zaku continued to make choking noises before stilling.

"Lee, what have you been doing?"

Everyone looked up towards the voice to see the stern face of Hyuuga Neji with a girl sporting hair buns tied to either side of her head. The Hyuuga leapt down to the forest floor followed by the girl, whose name Sakura couldn't remember. He glared at the remaining Dosu.

"Are you the one who did this to my teammate?"

The sole surviving Sound nin backed up, knowing he was entirely outnumbered. " No, Zaku here is the one who injured him. If you'll let me leave, I'll hand over my scroll. I surrender."

He slowly reached a hand into his pocket, his other hand in the air to show nonresistance, and pulled out an Earth scroll, setting it on the ground. Dosu quickly teleported away, leaving his two dead teammates behind.

"Who hurt you, Sakura?"

Sakura turned quickly in the direction of the tree roots, uncaring for the vertigo that action gave her.

Shikamaru huffed, as he too turned. "Too late in the game to be asking tha- what the hell is that on you?!"

Sasuke's face was covered in strange markings. The Uchiha looked at his hands, expression strangely calm, before letting his piercing eyes meet those of tired green.

"I asked who hurt you, Sakura", he repeated with a growl and the girl couldn't help but shudder.

Neji narrowed his eyes at the boy who was being enveloped in dark aura and activated his Byakugan. "He's dead, Uchiha. I would be more concerned with yourself instead if I were you."

"You don't need to worry about me, Hyuuga. I feel great actually. I feel… powerful."

"Sasuke-kun…"

Said boy got up from his spot and stalked over to the stiffening and dead Zaku. "So it's him. He's the one who hurt you."

Sasuke bared his teeth in a sneer and reached for the body. "I'll make him pay even in death!"

Sakura dove for Sasuke and slapped his hand away, herself landing in some of the spittle and blood on the ground when she couldn't support her own weight. She winced at her scraped elbows.

"Sasuke, don't touch the body! And he's _dead already_! Please, just stop", Sakura pleaded with him and grasped at the edge of his shirt, "Just please, no more…"

Sasuke stood shocked, the curse marks slowly receding to his neck and with it all his strength. He collapsed backwards, staring at the carnage in front of him as if seeing it for the first time.

"Wha-", he swallowed hard, "did I- did I do that?!"

"No, you didn't." Shikamaru eyed the black-haired boy warily.

"Then what happened? I only remember… fighting off Orochimaru and then he-he bit me. After that I don't remember any more."

Tenten looked disgusted. "He bit you?!"

Sakura gave Sasuke a sharp glance. Did that mean he didn't remember anything from when he woke up?

Her teammate turned to her and finally noticed Sakura's bloodied and bruised appearance.

"Sakura, what happened to you?!"

"Gah! Sakura-chan, I'll protect you! Wah, what happened to your face, 'ttebayo?!"

Shikamaru sighed, as he witnessed Ino kicking Naruto awake only for him to shout, looking to fight an enemy who wasn't there.

"This is too troublesome... Why don't we find a better place to sit and get events straightened into chronological order?"

Tenten helped lift up a disoriented Lee to support him by the shoulders with Neji's help. Sakura gathered what little strength she had left and stood up with the help of Sasuke and Shikamaru.

"What about the two…" Sasuke hesitated.

Sakura shook her head. "No one is to touch them. Zaku's death is abnormal and if we don't know why he suddenly died like that, then we don't touch it."

She received a sharp look. "You were literally lying in a pool of that guy's blood!"

"I'll quickly wash it off, but we need to go now, before people get here because of the noise earlier."

By this point, Sakura was muttering breathily as whatever remained of the adrenaline that pushed to stay on her feet slowly faded. Tenten looked at her worriedly.

"I think we should talk about it once we get to the tower. We're not far and Sakura looks like she needs rest and medical care first. Neji…"

The boy gave his teammate a look before grudgingly going over to take Sakura out of Sasuke's hands. Sasuke protested.

"I can-!"

"You're dragging your feet already, Uchiha. Don't tell me you're okay with dropping your teammate when she kept you and that pathetic teammate of yours alive?"

Sasuke clicked his mouth shut and Neji took over, positioning Sakura on his back.

"Take a break, forehead. You'll have a lot of explaining to do after we get you patched up."

Sakura could care less about the grilling Ino was implying she'd give her. As long as her teammates were okay, she didn't care. She'd been of use, and had protected them with what limited strength she had.

She welcomed the blissful darkness.

 **A/N: Minna-sama: Formal way of referring to everyone you're speaking to.**

 **So this is the first time I wrote so many pages in one chapter! Yay!**

 **For reviews:**

 **Suzululu4moe: Hahaha, that would be quite the irony! Well, who knows, maybe I'll have Itachi killed off or maybe not. *wink wink***

 **Blog-heart-slover03: Thanks! Hope you enjoyed this chapter too!**

 **Well, that's it for now! See you next chapter!**

 **Adieu,**

 **Hitori no kage**


	3. 3: The Beginnings of a Nightmare 2

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait! As I've mentioned in the author's note for my other story, WFSM, I'm kind of piled up to my eyeballs with work and things going on in my life. Thankfully, I just submitted one of my research papers one day earlier than the deadline, so yay! Celebrate with me by reading this next chapter!**

 **Without further ado, please enjoy and don't forget to write reviews after! They encourage me to write better each time!**

 **Adieu et avec beaucoup d'affection,**

 **Hitori no kage**

Synopsis: It was supposed to be a normal Chunin exams for Team 7, just like any other previous one. But then a pandemic rips across the five Elementals like no other, one not even Orochimaru could've predicted. Now with more than a third of the world population wiped out, their story will never be the same again.

Chapter 3: The Beginning of a Nightmare 2

 _Third Day in Forest of Death…_

Sakura immediately regretted the moment she finally felt aware of her surroundings again. Her body was a deadweight, everything was aching something fierce and she was sure her brain had been replaced with a load of bricks in an attempt to make a maraca of her skull. It certainly didn't help that the familiar voice of one Yamanaka Ino made it less than pleasant for Sakura to embrace being conscious again.

"... tell her to go to sleep! Just told her to take a break, you dolt! I didn't mean for her to-"

"Ino, too loud-", Sakura rasped hoarsely only to break out into a coughing fit. Since when did she breathe in a cup full of sand... And where was she again? She forced open her eyes to greet a worn gray tiled ceiling with a single fluorescent bulb dangling with a rope for a switch and flinched. On any other day, the lighting would have been dim for her tastes but at the moment, the brightness was burning her sensitive retina.

"Finally, about time you woke up, you billboard-forehead idiot!"

"Here, drink something." A hand presented a slightly steaming cup of liquid in front of her. The smell that wafted to her nose was that of something spicy with honey.

"It's honeyed ginger one of the medics handed to us to soothe your lungs and throat." Kakashi's voice registered in her head and she relaxed her tensing shoulders. With her sensei's help Sakura was able to prop her back against the wall and the older man guided her to take small sips of the concoction.

If Kakashi-sensei was here, then everything was okay. No more need for codes about some secret Uchiha path, no more ambushes, no more crazy, effeminate, snake-summoning pedophilic Sannin known as Orochimaru the Traitor and no more Sound nin-

Orochimaru!

Sakura quickly pulled back from Kakashi's supporting frame, nearly knocking the cup out of his hands with her chin. Kakashi watched worriedly when her eyes widened in alarm.

"Orochimaru!", she gasped, "Orochimaru was there and- where's Sasuke-kun?"

She looked frantically for the raven haired boy.

"Calm down Sakura, I'm over here and so's the dobe."

The pinkette turned to see him standing with her blond-haired teammate by a metal door, arms wrapped in bandages and in the fresh clothes he had packed for the exam. Naruto, on the other hand, sported nothing but his obnoxious orange jacket that was starting to fall apart at the seams.

"Sasuke and Naruto told me about your encounter with Orochimaru already and I'm glad you're all even alive to tell the tale. Don't worry, I've already sealed the curse mark on his shoulder." Kakashi said by way of explanation and gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze in an attempt to reassure her, but she winced, her lacerated shoulder still throbbing painfully.

He quickly let go and muttered an apology. "Unfortunately, they aren't allowing the medics to heal any non-critical wounds before the preliminaries of the final part of the exam. All we can do is wrap your wounds for now. Hinata-chan here was nice enough to lend our team use of her clan's well-known healing salve on the bruises and cuts you three collected."

"Oh... "

It was only then that Sakura finally noticed who else were in her room besides her teammates: Ino was standing on the other side of her across from Kakashi while her other teammates, Shikamaru and Chouji, were standing next to Hinata. Kiba and Shino were standing to their pale eyed teammate's right. Lee's team was not present.

"Thank you, Hinata-san." Sakura nodded her head towards the Hyuuga girl and she blushed before her habitual nervous tick overtook her, fiddling with her fingers nervously and looked down at the floor.

"Y- you're welcome, S-Sakura-san…"

The pink-haired girl just gently smiled, hoping to ease the anxiety she saw. "Please, just call me Sakura."

Hinata looked up like she had never heard anyone be so cordial and invite her to be closer than acquaintances before. It took a few seconds for the offer to sink in and she replied back with a shy smile. "O-okay… S-Sakura…" She quickly dipped her head again.

Kakashi's expression turned serious. "Well, as cute as this is… now that you're up and aware despite sporting a concussion, will you mind explaining what happened following Orochimaru's attack?"

Sakura nodded and immediately delved into her experience, events that seemed so surreal and far from her yet only happened the day before. By the time she finished, she felt drained again. Naruto had walked over when she got to her struggle with deciding whether to kill Dosu as well or incapacitate him, and put a gentle arm around her while Sasuke had a rare contemplative look on his face.

"Thank you, Sakura-chan."

Sakura shook her head, "I should be thanking you, Naruto. You were the one who helped a lot with that snake Sannin.

"I… never appreciated you as a teammate and was too focused on things that won't help me be an effective kunoichi. Yet you were still so nice to me. For my actions, I'm sorry. If you'll allow me a second chance to be a better teammate..."

"Of course!, dattebayo! You have always been a nice person, Sakura-chan!"

 _Should I say he's a saint? He's too nice to me…_

 _ **Or maybe it's because he's so simple-minded.**_

 _Shut up, Inner. I need to stop being so mean to him._

"Well then, since you have one more day before we go on to the next stage of the exam, rest up, little genin." Kakashi lightly ruffled each of their heads and left with a puff of smoke.

"Why do you always end up in the most disastrous of situations, forehead?" Ino sighed in exasperation. "First your C turned A-rank mission, now this… You sure you don't have a target sign marked on your large billboard brow?"

The blond reached towards Sakura as if to check but the pinkette swatted her hand away with a mock glare.

"No one touches that forehead, Ino-pig! If you have so much time on your hands why don't you make sure you're keeping that fat off your tummy by training more before someone mistakes you as a real pig and turn you into pork belly ramen that Naruto here likes so much?"

Naruto blanched at the thought and Chouji had to keep from snorting in his chips.

"You girls are so troublesome…" Shikamaru sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose but Sakura could tell he was trying to hide the smile tugging at his lips. He was definitely trying to avoid getting in trouble with Ino.

.

3

.

With the extra day to herself as the rest of her teammates went in search of food and exploring the tower, she took the time to reevaluate herself and her priorities. The more she thought about her current situation, the more she realized she was absolutely inadequate and most definitely not ready to be promoted to Chunin. Adding the fact that she was quite injured and had already used up most of her explosive tags and weaponry, she knew she didn't have enough arsenal on her to take down anyone in the kind of tournament fight Kakashi hinted at. She would have no choice but to withdraw.

Just as she feared and worried, Naruto didn't take to the news very well. Not so much as exploding in exclamations and questions of 'why, Sakura-chan?!' and 'you shouldn't give up, dattebayo!', but the sudden quiet look of disappointment, a quiet "oh…okay, if-if that's what you want, Sakura-chan." and a brief cautious hug.

Sasuke, unsurprisingly didn't say much. What was surprising was his expression; it was that same contemplative look he had when she briefed them on her scuffle with the Sound team. It was an expression she'd never gotten from him before. Whereas he'd always dealt her looks of annoyance and utter scorn, looks she now understood the reasons for with shame, this new expression was disconcerting to her; how was she supposed to interpret it? Was he taking her response to back out seriously with understanding? Or was he giving up on ever acknowledging her as a teammate worthy of being a part of Team seven? Were her actions in keeping them safe, the new rapport she'd wanted to built with her team burning to ashes because she was acting like she was chickening out and finally admitting how weak she was? Was she hitting an all-time low with her cohorts?

Sakura shook her head internally and ignored her own fears. Her goal now was to support her team and find ways to improve herself permanently so that she won't have to worry about those fears again.

When the fourth and final day came, she headed along with the other contestants to the ground floor of a small arena within the tower. From the looks of it, Lee's team, Team Ten and Eight, the Sand team, a Rock team, another Konoha team she didn't recognize, and finally their own team, made it into the final round. The Hokage, along with all of the proctors and their Jounin sensei, stood before them on a stage at the front of the room as he gave a congratulatory speech and an introduction to their final portion of their exam, a one on one battle.

Due to there being too many teams passing, and with the fact that the final round consists of battles being observed by foreign Daimyos, potential contractors and the Kages of the participants, only the best of the best would be fighting in the larger arena scheduled for next month during the real finals. In other words, any weakness was not welcomed and they were to be weeded out like common grass among saplings.

"Are there any among you who would like to forfeit beforehand?" Their preliminaries proctor, Gekko Hayate asked behind harsh coughing. It was a wonder he was still standing there when he would cut himself off sometimes from a bout of coughing, fit to ashen his face and eject his lungs from his mouth.

Sakura took this as her cue and raised her hand, even as Naruto still twitched in an instinctive move to stop her. She looked around to see who else chose to back out and saw one other person whose hair was the rare silver she only ever saw on her sensei.

"You both must be Haruno Sakura and Yakushi Kabuto. Would the two of you please sit in the observer's balcony while the first two competitors' names are to be announced?"

The two moved to climb the stairs and then watched as a screen flipped through names seemingly at random to reveal Sasuke and some other Genin she didn't recognize.

"I'm surprised your teammates let you back out." The silver-haired genin, Kabuto commented conversationally as they watched Sasuke try to attack his opponent, going from taijutsu to a sudden bout of ninjutsu.

 _Ah, he must have realized that guy is sucking out his chakra._

"I could say the same for you, Yakushi-san. Surely, your teammates protested as well?"

Kabuto rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "actually, they probably don't care much. Since this round is a one on one and the loss of an individual doesn't affect the results of the team, they're probably glad I'm out of their hair." Sakura swore his gaze turned calculating. "I don't think I can say the same about your team…"

"You can't. We're different teams after all." She conceded, but was unwilling to go into further detail. She'd never seen this person before this exam and here he was asking so many mundane but probing questions. Fellow Konoha Genin or not, she was beginning to get the feeling that he wasn't someone she wanted getting close to her.

She deliberately turned to fully face the open area and watched just as Sasuke used a move that would have broken the back of an ordinary civilian, knocking his opponent out cold. What was his name again? Yaro? Oroki? She couldn't be bothered to remember.

The next few matches were quick, with Shino easily winning his match, Chouji losing his and Naruto being pitted against Kiba yet winning against all odds. Once again, Sakura felt ashamed of her attitude towards someone she'd ignored as incompetent just because everyone else was doing it like it was some kind of fashion trend. In reality, she was actuality the one who was most lacking.

When the two Hyuugas, Hinata and Neji, were pitted against each other, Sakura became just a tad bit suspicious of the so called random selection. What were the chances for that to happen?

"Hey, Yakushi-san, they did say selection is random, right?" Sakura turned towards her right as she directed her question to the other genin, only to find the seat next to her empty. An uneasy feeling caused her to shiver. When did he leave?

An uproar made her turn back to the fight between relatives and she watched in building apprehension when Hinata began to cough up blood as she struggled to stand up again. It was hard to hear their conversation but whatever it was, it was making Neji turn a livid shade of fury. Next thing anyone knew, he was flying at her with a ferocity that was not needed under the circumstances.

"Someone stop him!", someone screamed in panic, even as the proctor himself called out that Neji was the winner since Hinata looked about to pass out from fatigue and blood loss, and demanded the Hyuuga boy to stand down. But he was showing no signs of stopping, his right palm shooting out to hit the most dangerous of all tenketsu points, the chakra gate at the heart.

Sakura shot out of her seat and grabbed the railing with an instinctual urge to jump down to the arena and pull her fellow female genin out of harm's way. She absentmindedly realized that perhaps the adrenaline from before still hadn't completely faded away as she watched the Jounin senseis and proctor quickly intervene.

"Of course you'll stop me", Neji snarled, struggling against the human straightjacket he was in: Gai had him by the shoulders, Kakashi and Kurenai each held down an arm while Hayate blocked Neji's advance. Hinata had finally slumped to the ground, choking quietly on her own blood. "Just because she's the heiress, isn't it?"

"You promised me, Neji-kun, that you wouldn't let your judgement be muddled by your clan's political mess", Gai said grimly, "Must you break your warm and youthful promise to me?"

It was almost unimaginable that Gai, the most enthusiastic and boisterous person Sakura had ever met next to his carbon copy that was Lee, be so solemn. She almost had the urge to rub her eyes and make sure they weren't playing tricks on her if the situation had been less dire. Severely injuring a clan heir or heiress outside of the appropriate bounds was no laughing matter.

A look of panic was settling onto Kurenai's face as she tried to keep Hinata conscious. "Medic! Quickly send for a medic nin!" One of the Chunin proctors quickly complied.

Sakura watched with her whole body shaking and hands gripping the metal railing hard enough to hurt.

 _Please let her be okay!_

 _ **I've never seen Hyuuga-san so angry… Actually I've never seen any Hyuuga this angry!**_

An Anbu suddenly appeared in the clearing and crouched down with hands glowing green.

"Move out of the way. She's going into cardiac arrest."

The next few beats of silence was heavy as the Anbu worked on Hinata until medic nin came rushing in.

Neji sneered. "And of course she gets the first class treatment, despite being so weak. I certainly didn't see medic nin and Anbu moving to aid other contestants as fast as you all did for Hinata- _sama."_ The honorific couldn't have been used with more venom than he did.

"Shut up, you bastard! Hinata-chan was really strong, dattebayo! Why do you always have to beat down on others and talk about stupid stuff like fate?! That's bullcrap!"

"You don't have the right to say anything, you loser. You only won your fight with Kiba only through sheer luck and stupidity. I'll only give you this advice once, as I had with Hinata-sama before her inevitable loss to me: you can't fight your own destiny- the weak will always be weak no matter how much they try and fight it. Once a loser, always a loser. And stop with the pathetic cheering that will only get others killed."

The pinkette grit her teeth together in frustration even as she jumped down to keep Naruto from doing something stupid like attempt to sucker punch the guy. Though she thought this time, Neji really deserved it. She too, wanted to improve, to exceed her own expectations of herself and here he was blabbing about how she would never be able to change for the better!

It was no surprise, of course, that Naruto took major offense at that slight. He, who had always desired acknowledgement but was shunted to the side for reasons none of their generation knew about but still followed the instructions of their parents who warned 'stay away from him', 'he's a monster' or 'he's no good'.

Yet despite that, he tried every method he could think of to gain that attention, to be looked at, from acting stupid in class to being a class clown and playing pranks on almost anyone who used to bully him. And then he'd found a better means to gain that attention- by growing stronger on his path as a shinobi and in a real way, possibly making his dream to become a Hokage more of a reality than any of his other actions would have.

Sakura knew for a fact that he worked hard in trying to change himself and become better. He just now needed the chance to prove himself.

Naruto knelt down and grabbed a fistful of bloody sand and swung it in Neji's direction, eyes dancing with molten fire.

"I swear on Hinata's blood, I'm going to beat that stupid logic out of your skull!"

Neji only looked down at him with disregard. "Let's see you try, loser. I'll just end up wasting more time teaching you the same lesson I just taught Hinata-sama."

"Alright, alright, enough", the proctor clapped his hands and made dismissing gestures in an attempt to diffuse the tension hanging in the air. "You guys can trash talk all you want in the finals… If you boys get paired up to fight that is."

Naruto glared at Neji one last time before turning on his heels and stomped up the stairs. "I _will_ fight him, even if that means pestering jiji till he let's me"

If only thIngs were that easy.

.

3

.

"I'm home!" Sakura opened the polished mahogany front door, the well oiled hinges allowing her entry to be silent. The foyer was dim without the entrance lights on and she could see the living room entrance at the end of the hallway before her, the dining room she knew to be on her right.

"Kaa-san? Tou-san? Nii-san?"

She walked past the stair that lead to the second floor and stepped into the living room, unstrapping her pack as she did so.

She called one more time, worry beginning to seep into her voice. Guilt was beginning to crawl into her skin; she knew her parents had been pretty sick before she'd left for the exam and she should have been there to help her brother take care of them, not selfishly doing whatever she wanted. "Hinoki nii-san?"

 _Maybe they're upstairs in the bedrooms asleep…_

 _ **I hope so…**_

"Hinoki nii-san, I'm home…" She called carefully as she ventured up the stairs. Again, the hallway was dim with the lights turned off. Her parents' door at the end of the hall was closed. Her and her brother's bedrooms were next to each other on the right with the bathroom to the left. Hinoki's door was slightly ajar and Sakura's expression turned wary. He usually either threw it wide open or closed his door firmly. As she walked closer, a faint smell of blood and sweat wafted towards her and the tension in her stomach grew. Something definitely didn't sit right with her. The last couple of steps to her brother's room was brisk and heavy, and like the old horror movies she conjured the pictures of in the back of her mind, the quiet creaking of the door as she opened it sounded louder than if a horn was blown in her ear.

Her brother was laying in bed with his back to her, wheezing and his breathing laboured. Sakura immediately rushed to him and carefully turned him around. She gasped.

Hinoki's skin was a sickly yellow, his cheeks sallow with a faint sheen of sweat coating his skin, dampening his hair and clothes. He stiffly raised a hand and coughed wetly into it before struggling to open his eyes.

"Ah, Sakura-chan... I see you're back." He smiled weakly. "How did you do?"

The pinkette glared at him and lightly smacked his arm. "Don't give me that! How long have you been sick?!" Anger saturated her voice but not enough to hide the heavy worry constricting her lungs. "You should have gone to the hospital!"

"Don't worry too much about me…", he patted her arm soothingly and sighed, "More importantly, check on kaa-san and tou-san. I started getting sick about two days ago and haven't been able to check on them since." He groaned pitifully at the reminder of his own ailment.

"My body feels like they've been weighted down by a ton of bricks…"

Sakura scrambled to her feet. "I'll get you a cooled towel first and then check on them. You have a really high fever."

She rushed to the bathroom, grabbed a clean towel and soaked in the fresh icy water Konoha was known for and placed it on Hinoki's forehead. "I'll be right back, nii-san."

The next room she entered was nothing like the place she remembered just a week ago. On any other day, the room would smell of the blooming potted jasmine plant her mother loved placing by the window and the sandalwood incense sticks her father sometimes burned to ward off moths and insects during the summer. Now, it only smelled of blood, sweat and spittle as her parents lay motionless on the bed.

 _Correction! Why is Tou-san on the floor?!_

"Tou-san! Otou-san!" She quickly went to his side and gently laid him on his back with the help of chakra. She slapped at his emaciated cheeks hoping to rouse him into a conscious state but all she got was an agonized groan. Sakura was now ready to transition into full blown panic.

"Come on, don't do this to me!"

 _ **Calm down, damn it! Pretend this is one of those situational emergencies we practiced at the academy. Which protocol should we follow?**_

"Okay… okay", she struggled to breath, "when in doubt, grab the next highest ranking personnel within the vicinity to receive orders."

She went to open the windows halfway for air circulation and hefted her father back on the bed all the while trying to avoid tripping over his legs. Then, after checking on her brother one more time, she threw herself out the window in search of a higher-up and just like her time in the Forest of Death, the fact that her hands and clothes were now dirtied with sweat and blood no longer occupied the forefront of her mind. She only had a singular goal to accomplish.

 _Surely, they'll know what to do!_

.

3

.

 _Present…_

Sakura sighed and rubbed at her sore neck muscles. It was in the wee hours of the morning and dawn was soon coming. This was the third village they inspected and the conditions the villages were left in didn't get any better. Adding to the fact that she still had an ongoing bet with Neji and she didn't plan on losing it any time soon. She had finished mapping out both arms and one leg but ever since they got to their first village, she couldn't afford to have any of her tenketsu shut down lest she become wounded and the area is exposed to this unknown airborne disease.

So far, they could only conclude that the purposeful circulation of their chakra, the way shinobi did, either helped slow down the symptoms of the illness from surfacing, long enough for the immune system to combat it or give them an immunity against it somehow. If the latter was true, however, only certain types, ways of circulating or natured chakra prevented that person from getting sick. The death of that Sound nin was testament to the fact that even shinobi weren't absolutely safe from the pestilence. And it didn't help that there were just so many unknown factors still and none of them knew where to start.

Sakura shook her head and focused on heading to her temporary apartment to begin writing her final report of her assessment of the village and an approximation of what kind of aid it needed. The report would then be sent to the interim Hokage, whoever that person was, to be reviewed and approved for sorting at the capital. Then, once her team left the village, she would have to go for a second round of getting her tenketsu shut down in her right leg.

Because getting from one village to the next didn't take very long, she would have to map as much as possible during the time they were on route before Neji would have to open them back up again so they could do their work. Now, in order for her to completely map a certain area, Neji would have to use his technique twice for each area. It was twice the pain. And she wasn't even getting into the challenge of her torso, inner tenketsu and the head.

"Ah, welcome back, Haruno-san." Kitahara greeted from the island table in the kitchen. "Hyuuga-san came back about fifteen minutes ago. Everything alright? Usually you come back together…"

Sakura smiled. "Everything is fine, thank you, Kitahara-san. I needed to look up some records and so I had Hyuuga-san come back first to rest. No point in making him wait."

His shoulders relaxed. "I see. Then please do get some rest. You can just write and hand me the report tomorrow afternoon before we head out."

"Alright, thank you. Have a goodnight!" She quickly headed for the back of the apartment after a quick wave and opened her bedroom door. It was small, but efficient with a single bed, a desk and chair, a closet, a table lamp, and a connecting private bathroom. She was very tempted to flop onto her bed and call it a night, but she headed straight for the showers to scrub herself pink from top to bottom before starting on the report she needed to hand in the next day.

.

3

.

Even before they reached the high majestic torii gate of Tanzaku Gai, they'd already began to smell the decay, smoke and blood filtering into the air. But the moment they stepped through the entrance and into the streets, it was as if they'd entered into the realm of the dead. There were piles of decaying bodies lying here and there on the side of the roads, a few still burning away in their attempt to be rid of the deceased. Shops were closed and the lights were dark in the buildings they passed by, with no one in sight. The town was pretty much decimated.

Sakura clenched her fists and shook out her arms before readjusting the mask she wore on her face just to be on the safe side but also more for her own reassurance. Kitahara wrinkled his nose at the stench that permeated the air and all of them had to fight their gag reflexes.

"Why the hell is this place so much worse than the previous towns we've been in?!" The Chunin looked beyond bewildered.

"It's no wonder if you think about it", Sakura murmured absentmindedly as she scanned for survivors, "Tanzaku Gai, as glamourous as it may look, is… was still a gambling hub and a red light district. People came in contact with each other and left so quickly that a disease as contagious as this would have had no problems spreading. It certainly didn't help that hygiene and sanitation wasn't the best here, with drunkards defecating and throwing up in places they shouldn't, body fluids being exchanged and all that…"

Kitahara sighed and shook his head, mutterings muffled behind his protective gear. The pinkette glanced at Neji, whose face she could not see from behind the mask that now covered up half his face. "Would you mind using your Byakugan to check for any survivors as well?"

The boy nodded silently and scanned the area slowly with the new clarity in his eyes. He twitched with a sudden jerk of his neck and a deep troubled frown marred his face as he turned off his bloodline limit.

"There doesn't seem to be any survivors within a fifty meter radius but…", he hesitated, obviously cautious and slightly disturbed by what he saw. "There seems to have been a battle leading towards the other side of town… and it is by no means a small scale one."

He glanced towards the only Chunin in their group before admitting bitterly, "I don't think we are at the proper skill level to go ahead and investigate the scene should the shinobi involved are still around."

Kitahara closed his eyes and formed the ram seal for concentration. His eyes flew open in a matter of seconds. "That's- that's Tsunade hime-sama's chakra signature! She seems to be fighting someone equally powerful!"

Sakura regarded him sharply. "You're a sensor type?"

He nodded sharply. "This pertains to our second part of the mission- to find Tsunade hime-sama. We can't ignore this."

Sakura drew a nervous breath in and exhaled. "We really don't have a choice do we…"

"No."

No one said another word and quickly raced toward the apparently ongoing battle, following the tracks of ripped up earth, broken trees and stray senbon littering the trail. The closer they got, the more unsteady the ground beneath them became, accompanied by the clashes of trees, rocks, metal and ninjutsu.

They broke out into the clearing just in time to watch as Tsunade flung a gigantic boulder forward and smash it into dangerous pieces of shrapnel, all in the direction of a long-haired, wiry man whom Sakura was more than reluctantly acquainted with. She also immediately recognized one other person fighting at the scene and she seethed.

 _I knew there was something about him! A traitor!_

"Orochimaru the snake Sannin and Yakushi Kabuto!" She hissed venomously. "Traitors!"

"We'll talk about this later!" Kitahara commanded as he surged forward again, weapons at the ready. "That snake is out of our league but we can still take care of that other guy with four against one! Be wary of his chakra, he seems to be highly trained in it!"

The other two nodded and followed behind. Neji activated his kekkai genkai while Sakura immediately began weaving genjutsu, improvising on the spot by forcing her chakra into a tight stranglehold and layering different illusions on top of each other. She flung it at Kabuto, hoping to at least cause him some momentary distraction.

She almost panicked when he broke out of them within seconds, but that was all the black-haired woman and Neji needed as they honed in on him and attacked viciously, their skills blending well with each other. The woman threw a volley of well aimed senbon, gleaming with poison, and Neji used his eight trigrams technique to direct them into the tenketsu points. Kabuto seemed to have an extremely fast reaction time though because he managed to dodge multiple of them while the rest made it to their targeted destinations. Kitahara followed up with fireball roaring towards the bespectacled boy heating up the area on the double to force him back away from their new ally in this fight. Though the younger boy managed to leap away from the fire's direct path, his body was littered with second degree burns and the right side of his body numb and useless. However, of course, the possibility of him being ambidextrous didn't allow for any of them to relax without fully knowing that they'd well and truly killed him.

It was when Kabuto enveloped that half of his body in green chakra that Sakura realized just how skilled he was in chakra manipulation. "He's a med-nin, at least Jounin level! He might know how to use chakra scalpels as a weapon so don't block any of his taijutsu attacks but evade them!"

Kabuto threw her a sharp, annoyed look and sneered. "It's not often I find people an inconvenience and annoying but you're beginning to make it to that list. And those who do make it on there don't live long enough to convince me otherwise."

The pinkette swallowed apprehensively, hands immediately gravitating towards her explosive tags when he turned in her direction, but the ground giving way beneath them all diverted their attention to the bigger fight going on, on the other side of the clearing. Tsunade had just stomped her foot and created a wide fissure in the earth in an attempt to engulf Orochimaru in its depth. It was clear that the snake Sannin was at a disadvantage with both his arms immobile from the shoulders down after his fight with the previous Hokage Sarutobi, and he was wheezing at this point. Kabuto aborted his advance on Sakura and made a move to regroup with his ally.

Kitahara was not about to let him and in a move that could be considered a rookie mistake had he been one, he raced to intercept the silver-haired 'Genin ' and unintentionally exposed his back to a greater enemy who still managed to fight with Tsunade with his arms incapacitated.

"Kitahara-san! Wait, behind you!" Sakura cried in alarm and promptly panicked as she watched the Chunin stiffen in sudden realization at the situation he'd just put himself in but without a means to do anything about it. Orochimaru had apparently thought the same thing for he lunged with his neck extending, gleaming poisonous sword in mouth.

Before Sakura could even second guess the sheer insanity of what she was about to do, she flew threw the familiar hand signs of a kawarimi on auto pilot to switch with the pebble near Kitahara. She soon felt the tell-tale pull of the jutsu activating all the while-

 _Thisiscompletelycrazy, amIreallydoingthisagain, Ineedtogettherefaster, whatthehellcanIdoagainstaSannin?!_

 **Outer!**

A blinding pain ran through her as the blade pierced straight through her chest in his attempt to still reach the person behind her. She screamed and choked on blood when he couldn't and then decided to try cutting her in half instead. Luckily, Neji and the dark-haired woman rushed in, the former slicing through the traitorous snake's tongue, catching him by surprise. In record speed, he drove a sixty-four palm technique into the man's gut and sent him flying into a nearby tree, while the latter immediately sent a green glowing palm towards the wound. She quickly but gently laid the pinkette down on the ground and pulled the sword out as swiftly as she tried to close the wound to prevent her bleeding out.

With Sakura down and Tsunade trembling at the spray of blood Sakura's injury produced, they could do nothing but watch a wounded Kabuto pull an extremely weakened Orochimaru out of the area and disappear, especially when they soon felt and then saw the third member of the Sannin come crashing into the scene. Jiraiya's face went from grim to alarm in a matter of seconds and raced to Tsunade's side.

"Oi, you okay?!" He looked towards the woman working on the fallen girl's wounds with urgency. "Shizune, where'd the bastard go?!"

"He's gone, but now's not the time for that! We need to get this girl to a proper hospital before she either bleeds out internally or dies from this poison!"

Jiraiya looked troubled. "From the looks of it, it's Kusanagi sword's poison she's got there. But the closest hospital is… the Konoha one and it's a twenty minute run even at top speed. With that kind of wound so near her heart, she might not make it, especially since the poison is designed to spread with the use of chakra circulation."

"Hy-hyuuga-san…" Sakura wheezed and said boy quickly came forward. "Ten...ketsu… point."

Neji knelt by her side and glared at her. "Now isn't exactly the right time to be talking about that you fool. Just shut up so we can make sure we can get you to the hospital."

She shook her head but the movement proved to be too much for her and groaned. "Stop tenketsu points", she whimpered in pain but forced herself to choke out her words in a stilted fashion. "Points around the h-heart…lungs... prevent poison… induce hypo... thermia…save time..."

Neji and Shizune froze, though each for a different reason. "It just might work", whispered Shizune desperately but Neji shook his head, the feeling of apprehension he never thought he'd ever experience again filling his lungs.

"It's not that easy", he argued, "tenketsu at the heart are very volatile and might burst under the pressure if I add even a little more chakra than needed by accident!"

"Sakura-san, I'm so sorry!" Kitahara cried in despair kneeling on her other side,his hands wringing themselves to near bits as he agonized over the situation. "Hyuuga-san, even if it's little chance, please!"

"I'll surround the area with medical chakra to support the heart muscles as a preventative measure." Shizune looked at Neji gravely. "At this rate, this is really the only thing we can do now; shut the tenketsu points against the poison, induce hypothermia for her wounds. It should help her make it back to the hospital for proper treatment. We don't have time!"

"Do it!" Sakura reached up and grabbed his wrist making him flinch. But it was then that he felt her shaking and when he looked into her eyes, he saw- she was just as scared, as insecure and apprehensive as he was feeling right then. She obviously didn't have it together and not very confident about this idea either. But she was willing to try it, placing her life in his hands even when those same hands had almost ended Hinata's.

Finally he nodded, placing a hand on top of the one holding his wrist for dear life. "I can only do my best…"

'Ah…', he suddenly thought, 'is this what Lee feels when he acknowledges his own limitations but still tries to do his utmost? I think a understand a bit now- this worrying but still grasping onto hope.'

"Thank… you…" Sakura couldn't help the tears sliding down the bridge of her nose and into her bloody hair.

Then for the second time since the Forest of Death, she once again closed her eyes and knew no more.


End file.
